Users can still switch to a more traditional desktop mode by clicking on an icon, but the environment lacks the start menu button offered since Windows 95.
That's why Windows 8 opens in the start screen, why Microsoft is working to build up a large catalog of tablet-type apps that run only in the start screen, and why the traditional desktop has been relegated to a mode you reach by clicking on an icon on the start screen.
Eerily, one of the last singles was from an icon of the past: Little Richard, in full gospel mode on "I Don't Know What You've Got, But It's Got Me, " featuring a young Jimi Hendrix on guitar.